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The Supreme Court of the United States is seen in Washington, DC, on September 21, 2020. Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP
WASHINGTON – Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the top contender for Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the United States Supreme Court, is a conservative favorite for her religious views, but critics warn her appointment would displace the highest court in the country firmly to the right.
In 2018, he was on the shortlist put forward by President Donald Trump for a position released by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, a position ultimately filled by Brett Kavanaugh after a fierce battle for confirmation.
At just 48 years old, her lifetime appointment to the bank would ensure a strong conservative presence on the panel for decades, but her experience, the antithesis of “RBG,” the women’s rights advocate who died last week, is a new flash point in a polarized country.
A practicing Catholic and mother of seven children, including two adopted from Haiti and a young son with Down syndrome, Barrett is personally opposed to abortion, one of the key issues that dominates the cultural divide in the United States.
After a childhood in New Orleans in the conservative South, she became a top student at Notre Dame Law School in Indiana, where she later went on to teach for 15 years.
Early in her legal career, she worked as a secretary for the renowned conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and embraced his “originalist” philosophy of understanding the Constitution as it was intended to be read at the time of writing, as opposed to the more progressive. interpretation.
Praised for her finely honed legal arguments, the college professor, however, has limited experience presiding over a courtroom, having only held office in 2017, after being appointed by Trump as a federal court judge in appeals.
‘Dogma lives loud’
At the time, his Senate confirmation process was a stormy affair, with veteran Democrat Dianne Feinstein telling him: “Dogma lives loudly inside you.”
That statement was used by Barrett’s supporters to accuse Feinstein herself of bigotry, and only served to further her position among the religious right.
The conservative Judicial Crisis Network even made mugs with the judge’s image printed alongside Feinstein’s words.
Without losing his composure, Barrett replied that he could make the distinction between his faith and his duties as a judge.
But her critics were unconvinced, often citing the many articles she wrote on court matters while at Notre Dame, pointing to her recent rulings as a judge that they say betray her ideological leanings.
In federal appeals court in Chicago, she took positions that support gun rights and oppose migrants and women seeking abortions, in addition to going against the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” the former president-driven healthcare reform that Republicans have been trying to dismantle for years.
‘God’s Kingdom’
One of his lectures in particular, given to Notre Dame students, is frequently used to reprimand Barrett.
Presenting herself as a “different kind of lawyer,” she said that a “legal career is but a means to an end … and that end is the building of the Kingdom of God.”
“Amy Coney Barrett meets Trump’s two litmus tests for federal judges,” said Daniel Goldberg, director of the progressive lobby group Alliance for Justice.
“The will to repeal the Affordable Care Act and to repeal Roe v. Wade,” the landmark legislation that legalized abortion in the United States.
“This nomination is about taking care of 20 million Americans and removing protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions. Barrett, who has even opposed guaranteeing access to contraception, would be a reproductive freedom nightmare, “Goldberg said.
On the other hand, conservatives salute a woman they consider “brilliant” and “impressive.” On the internet, fans have even started posting memes of her dressed as Superman.
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